i7 cooler comparison

[Denithor]

Linkage.

Final Thoughts
So given the option, which would we choose? Well, as always it comes down to the specifics of what you?re after. If silence is golden to you, then we?d point you firmly in the direction of the Noctua NH-U12P. It?s practically silent if you use the voltage step down adapters, yet packs excellent cooling into the bargain, although you do pay a premium for what is a deservingly premium product.

If you?re after pure performance and lower temperatures, then the Thermalright Ultra eXtreme 120 is still the undisputed champion of air cooling. Knocking a full 5°C off the next closest competition, it?s still a fantastic cooler, and even more attractive now you can pick up a kit including a LGA 1366 mount and bundled 120mm cooling for a little over £50. If you absolutely must get the absolute maximum cooling from your CPU then the TRUE is still the cooler to get.

But the best cooler on test is undoubtedly the Akasa Nero. Cool, quiet and most importantly reasonably priced, it?s the only cooler we tested today that doesn?t charge the earth for cooling LGA 1366, or any other recent CPU for that matter, very well indeed. It?s easily one of the best value CPU coolers on the market today, and comes very highly recommended - If we were spending our own money, the Nero is the heatsink we?d get.

Good article. Interesting to note that even the weakest aftermarket cooler kept their mildly overclocked i7 965 (3.6GHz) 20C cooler under load than the stock Intel HSF.

The TRUE managed to knock the temps down from 75C (Intel HSF) to a very tolerable 43C.

 

[videogames101]

The TRUE is still on top, you'd think someone would have topped it by now...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Originally posted by: videogames101
The TRUE is still on top, you'd think someone would have topped it by now...

I think TR topped it with the IFX-14, although I'm not 100% sure that it's socket-1366 compatible -- probably is, though.

There is also something called a CoolerMaster V10, which I need to look at more carefully. I'm not even sure it's been released yet.

 

[garritynet]

You can buy the V10 on newegg.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck

Originally posted by: videogames101
The TRUE is still on top, you'd think someone would have topped it by now...

I think TR topped it with the IFX-14, although I'm not 100% sure that it's socket-1366 compatible -- probably is, though.

There is also something called a CoolerMaster V10, which I need to look at more carefully. I'm not even sure it's been released yet.

cuz the ifx could handle 3 fans and not 2 like the TRUE did.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Other reviews have shown the V8 to be on par with the TRUE, so not sure what the difference is.